I started to look at some of the newer copyright troll cases and came across one in the Eastern District of Tennessee; Dimensional Dead Productions LLC v. Does 1-21, 3:12-cv-00603. No porn here, just zombies. This copyright infringement case is for the movie “Night of the Living Dead: Resurrection,” which was (and is still probably) shared via BitTorrent. Please also note in the docket, there are 13 related law suits to this case. 5Apr13Docket_00603(TN)

This zombie movie is based on George Romero’s classic NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD. The movie was filmed and initially released in the United Kingdom on 30 Nov 12. It has a scheduled US DVD release of 30 Apr 13. IMDb shows an estimated budget of $20K for the movie. The copyright registration shows it was registered by Dimensional Dead Productions LLC, on 16 Mar 11, via a Transfer by written agreement. The address is listed as 9601 Wilshire Blvd #1150, Beverly Hills, CA, 90210, United States. “Jeffery Lynn Broadstreet, 1954-” is the author on the registration (entire movie), with the following contact information: Jeffery Lynn Broadstreet, (323) 528-4551, (310) 276-0414, broad@earthlink.net. Registration

A look at the complaint reveals a pretty standard mass-Doe BitTorrent copyright infringement case. The charges are for a single instance of direct and contributory copyright infringement (DEFENDANTS ARE MEMBERS OF A SINGLE BITTORRENT SWARM) stemming from a single BitTorrent swarm (SHA1 Hash file # 4E92249F7ED7CF6FFC32EF8391E4902AAF23916F) involving TN public IP addresses between 15 Aug 2012 – 30 Oct 2012. Complaint_00603(TN)IPaddress_00603(TN) Now with this time period, I really doubt all the public IP addresses stayed in the swarm for the entire time. Most likely there were public IP addresses from all around the world coming and going from the swarm.

Plaintiff claims the infringing activity hurt its business, as they spent a substantial amount of time, money and effort to produce, market, and distribute the movie. The Motion Picture is currently offered for sale on at least on these websites: Amazon.com, target.com, columbiahouse.com, thatsentertainmentstore.com, and moviesunlimited.com. The initial release in the UK, was 30 Nov 12, approximately 100 days after the first public IP address in this case was observed sharing the movie via BitTorrent.

I’m trying to get a copy a settlement letter from this Troll/Plaintiff. What I have heard is that they want $5,000 within two weeks or the amount doubles. I will try to verify this. If the budget information (via IMDb) is true, then this is a crazy settlement amount, for a low-budget film. I know that some Plaintiffs are going to claim that the damage done to them is substantial, but this is crazy.

What caught my eye in this case is the personnel/technical monitoring firm the Troll/Plaintiff used: Darren M Griffin, Software consultant, Crystal Bay Corporation (CBC), South Dekota. A new name and a new company… A check of SD records disclosed CBC was incorporated in SD on 28 Mar 12, at the request of Corp 95, 32565B Golden Lantern Street, STE 140, Dana Point, CA 92629. CBC_Corp(SD) They list 110 E. Center Street, STE 2053, Madison, SD 57042, as their principle executive office address. Note: The SD register agent has the same address as CBC. David Deloach, 32565B Golden Lantern Street, STE 140, Dana Point, CA 92629, is listed as the person who incorporated CBC. Yes people, the stench of a Troll operation touches all aspects of these cases and it just doesn’t stop. I did find a Madvillie Times news article from 11 Jun 12, titled “Madison Home to More Shelf Corporations”, that was interesting. It appears people are using SD as a good place to create shell corporations. The article highlights CBC and 14 other corporation were created by Mr. Leoach during a 3.5 month period.

A notable apparent screw up on this case is that in the motion to take early discovery, the movie listed is “Night of the Living Dead 3D: Re-Animation,” and not “Night of the Living Dead: Resurrection.” This appears to be a normal sloppy screw up made by Trolls who are apparently too busy to keep their shenanigans in order. Picture The sad thing is the court didn’t notice the error when they approved Plaintiff’s motion. It still needs to be corrected and I hope some Doe decides to bring it to the attention of the court.

I would like to ask the help of any interested personnel in conducting some research into Mr. Griffin, CBC, Mr. Leoach, and the other “interesting” aspects of this case. Tennessee is a new location and I would like to arm the local Doe defenders with as much information as possible.

If you are a Doe is this case or one of the related ones, please post some information here or send me an email. I don’t expect this case to go anywhere beyond the settlement harassment stage, but as this is an unknown Plaintiff… I sense some larger force behind this local TN Troll (Van R. Irion).

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About DieTrollDie

I'm one of the many 'John Does' (200,000+ & growing in the US) who Copyright Trolls have threatened with a civil law suit unless they are paid off. What is a Copyright Troll? Check out the Electronic Frontier Foundation link - http://www.eff.org/issues/copyright-trolls

“DeLoach has played this game in Wyoming, which BusinessWeek has referred to as the Cayman Islands of the Great Plains (see : “Special Report: A little house of secrets on the Great Plains” http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/06/28/us-usa-shell-companies-idUSTRE75R20Z20110628) and (http://articles.businessinsider.com/2011-08-02/news/30073279_1_business-insider-business-insider-the-reuters) and (http://wyomingcompany.com/); now South Dakota is DeLoach’s new Delaware, as indicated by his pitch on his Corp95 website”: – “South Dakota is one of the best kept secrets in the corporate formation world. The state has NO corporate income or franchise taxes. Their annual fees are minimal ($50 per year) and they allow for the most privacy of ownership than in any other state. South Dakota is a low key environment and does not require that its businesses maintain any physical presence in the State. Formation is fast and requires a minimum of personal information. You will pay no more and sometimes less than some of those states that claim to offer privacy but do not actually do so. Why form your company in a state that claims to have no taxes, but then charges high fees to compensate for this. South Dakota truly does offer the most privacy at a very reasonable ongoing fee. Call us at 800-859-6696 and let us provide you with the details for formation of your business entity in this friendly state [“Incorporating in South Dakota,” Corp95.com, downloaded 2012.06.11].”

I know it is not popular on this site but for me and my family the best decision was to settle. I simply want to stay off the radar. Torrentlitigation has a list of most of the pending cases in TN. There are over 36. This was the single scariest situation I have been in. I am even nervouse typing this comment. I simply want to go on with my life as normal but given what I now know about IP adresses and these litigations and what can be found online I am scared of my shadow. TN is an overlooked state in these matters and I wouldn’t wish this process on my worst enemy. I don’t know why I felt the need to comment except that something in my home state finally came up in the numerous websites I have since started obsessively monitoring. Check the cases.

Great reporting, as always, DTD. A link for inclusion is their official blog found here: http://notldresurrection.blogspot.com/ – this confirms the low budget aspect (they repeatedly mention in the blog that it is low budget.) Like I said in regards to the Breaking Glass Pictures case: Copyright Law is indeed broken. I am all for people who make films getting their due… but based on the merits of their projected sales. So, for the sake of argument, let’s see how much The Night Of The Living Dead series commands. For added effect, let’s take Return of the Living Dead 3… I’m using ROTLD3 as an example for two factors: It came out before internet piracy existed, had a bigger budget (2 million… which is about 5 million via inflation) and more exposure. So, what did that movie rake in? $54,207. (source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Return_of_the_Living_Dead_3 )

Maybe it’s unfair to compare those films. Let us, instead, compare it with a current film in the Night of the Living Dead canon. Made by George Romero himself. Survival of the Dead which came out in 2010 with a budget of 4 million. What did it make WORLDWIDE? $143,191. (Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survival_of_the_Dead )

What do both of these figures have in common? Both are less than a SINGLE default judgement of $150,000 which is the figure these companies lean on when sending out settlement letters. (As I have not seen this particular cases settlement letters, I am going on assumption that they make mention of a typical default judgement maximum. I could be wrong, but doubt that I am.)

So, while I am for companies seeking action against piracy, I am wholly against these companies using that $150,000 figure to demand 1/4 of their reported budget ($5,000) from individuals. I wonder if they’ve filed anymore than against the 21 Does (which, at a reported $5,000 settlement fee would equal over 100k) – because they seem to have an incredibly warped perception of the value of their property.

Let’s also be frank: With zero reviews on Rotten Tomatoes, nobody saw this movie. They were never going to make any money off of this.

What drives me the most crazy about this particular case is because of a copyright loophole, the original Night of the Living Dead fell under public domain, is freely downloadable… and you can make your own unofficial sequel. George Romero isn’t bothered by these unofficial sequels, but I bet that he’d be interested to see that something he created is now being used to put financial burdgen on the lives of potentially innocent people. These “filmmakers” made use of a copyright lapse to make this movie and are now using a broken copyright law to harm others. Grand fucking waste of the court system.

Would someone please explain to me how a film that (apparently) was not made publicly available on DVD until November 2012 was downloaded in the period of August 2012 – October 2012. I see it was made in Cardiff, the home of Doctor Who. Time travel anyone? Or perhaps someone deliberately setting up a honey trap? In fact, checking with Amazon UK I see it still hasn’t been released and won’t be until May 13th at the earliest

Ret, Dr. Who is cool, but no time travel here. I would make the assumption that a preview copy was leaked out to the Internet and someone seeded it on BT. As it had its copyright registration, it was likely being held until the owners could sell the rights to it and/or work a distribution deal. Many movies make it out on BT prior to their official release date.

I agree it’s possible for a DVD preview copy to leak but such copies are generally prepared a couple of months before a release date, not a full 9 months. (Which is why I mentioned the order seeking details re IP addresses for the period from August 2012, yet no release until May 2013?)
As you say, many movies “escape” before their official release date. It just seems an inordinate amount of time here and I understand suggestions have been made concerning other trolls that certain movies might have not so much “escaped” as been deliberately sent out as a lure, especially when they haven’t been released and aren’t likely to be (commercially) released as they aren’t thought likely to make a profit. I suspect I’m more cynical than you. Me, I tend to suspect any and everything… :-)

PS I’ve just noticed John Doe’s comment below. It’s a possible source certainly but I don’t think the film in question is porn

In the dying days of March when most troll watchers were enjoying the Prenda bloodletting, Judge Jane Magnus-Stinson in the Southern District of Indiana handed down a default judgment against an absent Gerald Glover for sharing a single movie. Total cost, a cool $151,425.

iam being threatened over 6 degrees of hell by attorney van r irion in east Tennessee they are demanding me pay 5000.00 idont know what exactly to do if someone could help me understand the processs I would be grateful

Start with the Newbie/Noob page and read the articles. Get a PACER account and look up your case. I assume based on the $5K settlement demand, they have your contact information. If you do not pay, the Troll could name you in the law suit or open a separate case (only you verse multiple Does). I haven’t heard of anyone being named in these horror movie cases. Based on what I have seen, I expect these horror movie BT cases will be like the classic porn BT cases, where a vast majority are never served with a summons/complaint. The Troll will milk the case for as many settlements as possible and then close it down and move onto another. Try to contact some attorneys who are knowledgeable about these cases – don’t get an attorney who doesn’t have experience in these cases (My opinion). If you are ever served with a summons/complaint, then you need to hire an attorney. If you can, please email me a copy of the settlement demand letter – doerayme2011@hotmail.com

We have picked up the defense of a case filed by Irion, with the demand letters described above. This is for Breaking Glass – the film 6 Degrees of Hell, which our client had never heard of. We had another person defending themselves come by. We might be able to help Josh Doe above. I will attempt to get the paperwork from Irion scanned shortly and send to dietrolldie. It really is quite extraordinary. I can be reached at stephenkperry@gmail.com. The firm is Montpelier, Cole, Della-Rodolfa & Ford, P.C. in Knoxville.

My cable company sent me a priority mail letter stating that this company Breaking Glass is demanding my information and that I downloaded a movie called 6 Degrees of Hell. I have not heard of or viewed any movie by this title. We had recently rec’d a few notifications of copyright infringement from out cable company and since then have changed our wireless password and they’ve since ceased. They claim this movie was downloaded in December, when I was basically unable to use my dominant right arm due to serious elbow surgery. If anyone can help me, please feel free to email me at sski@sskiweb.com and let me know what I should do. I don’t have $5k, especially for a movie I’ve never watched, downloaded or viewed. I live in Wisconsin for what its worth. Thank you so much for any help/suggestions or anything that I can do to protect myself.